The present invention relates to a method for managing the repairing, cleaning, painting, or other maintenance of railcars within a railcar maintenance facility. Specifically, the present invention relates to a method for managing the maintenance of railcars within a facility wherein the facility has an inbound track, an outbound track, and a plurality of repair stations for moving a railcar in and out of the facility and for repairing, cleaning, or painting the same. Moreover, the invention relates to a management method that has a plurality of communication devices for signaling the availability of maintenance stations within the maintenance facility. Further, the railcar maintenance process allows for efficient movement of railcars through the facility by queueing the railcars at strategic locations within the railcar facility.
The railcar industry presently suffers from high costs associated with railcar repair. Regularly scheduled repair and maintenance, along with the inevitable number of wrecks and bad orders, cause some percentage of each fleet of railcars to be out of service at any given time. While out of service for repair, a railcar is unable to generate income for the owner of the railcar. Thus, it is desirable to minimize the throughput time of a repair facility and maximize the efficiency of the railcar""s service time. Additionally, decreasing the throughput time for repair facilities allows the industry to rely on smaller fleets, as fewer backup railcars are needed. Furthermore, it is desirable to minimize the variability of a repair facility""s throughput time to promote accurate estimates of when railcars will return to service. Accurate estimates of throughput time decrease costs to the industry by reducing the need for redundant planning.
Traditionally, railcar repair facilities, as well as many other manufacturing operations, release product into the facility as soon as it arrives regardless of the state of the production system. Railcar repair facilities traditionally consist of a series of maintenance stations located sequentially along a continuous track. The assembly-line repair method and repair facility design may be appropriate when working with a standardized product that requires uniform treatment at each stage of the assembly-line procedure. However, pushing railcars with individual repair process requirements through an assembly-line repair facility leads to inconsistent throughput performance with large backlogs, increased work-in-process levels, and increased cycle times having high levels of variation. If a single railcar is delayed due to lengthy repair work or a shortage of necessary materials, every railcar in the facility behind the delayed railcar may also be delayed. Thus, a single railcar can create a work-in-process bottleneck effecting the entire repair production system. These bottlenecks may cause the high throughput times and the equally high variability of throughput times of traditional railcar repair facilities. Moreover, typical maintenance processes fail to identify the process bottleneck, thereby leading to solutions that fail to provide constant work to the bottleneck. Failure to identify the process bottleneck may lead to inefficiencies, otherwise known as xe2x80x9cbottleneck starving.xe2x80x9d
A major limitation of the assembly-line process is the inability to implement any form of bottleneck planning. In a traditional railcar repair facility, high levels of work-in-process hide the bottleneck operation preventing the facility from running at its highest efficiency. One key to improving a maintenance facility""s efficiency is to identify the bottleneck operation and ensure that process is in continuous operation.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to improve the efficiency and predictability of railcar repair by identifying a facility layout capable of eliminating unnecessary work-in-process bottlenecks. Further, it is desirable to implement a railcar maintenance facility having a plurality of stations to service a plurality of types of railcars having a plurality of maintenance needs.
The present invention relates to a railcar maintenance management system and method. More specifically, the present invention relates to a system and a method for managing the repairing, cleaning, painting, or otherwise maintaining of railcars within a railcar maintenance facility. Further, the railcar repair process allows for efficient movement of railcars through the facility by queuing the railcars at strategic locations within the railcar facility.
Therefore, it is an advantage of the present invention to utilize a process layout facility to optimize both efficiency and predictability of railcar repair.
It is an additional advantage of the present invention to employ customized routing patterns through the maintenance facility based on the individual maintenance needs of each railcar.
And it is an additional advantage of the present invention to optimize workstation efficiency by eliminating work-in-process bottlenecks within the railcar maintenance facility.
Still further, it is an advantage of the present invention to increase workstation utilization within the railcar maintenance facility by providing workstations capable of servicing multiple product types.
And it is an additional advantage of the present invention to prevent the identified bottleneck process from starving.
It is a further advantage of the present invention to provide a railcar maintenance facility that utilizes a system of queues to efficiently move railcars that need maintenance through the facility.
These and other advantages of the present invention will become apparent upon examining the drawings and figures together with the accompanying written description thereof.